Why Is This Important?

Long Story Short

A high school in Utah advised girls on the cheerleading team not to wear their uniforms the day of a football game, after a male student complained the uniforms gave him “impure” thoughts.

Long Story

Skimpy skirts triggering “impure” thoughts in a male high school student should hardly be news, as high school boys scarcely have anything else in their heads. And yet here we are, after one morally-crusading youngster complained that the skirts worn by the school cheerleading team distracted him in class.

It happened last week at Timpview High School, in the predominantly-Mormon town of Provo in Utah County, Utah.

Writing on the Mormon Stories Podcast Facebook page, Nicole Wood, a sister of one of the Timpview cheerleaders, said, “They are sexualizing a school uniform and I think it’s disgusting – they are objectifying these girls. I feel like this obsession with female modesty is just feeding into the rape culture that is far too prevalent in the area.”

Timpview High is not far from Mormon-run Brigham Young University where, earlier this year, female students were punished by the school’s honor code after reporting they had been raped.

Heather Johnson, an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University, says young girls are under the impression they have to be what they see portrayed in advertising and the media to gain attention and acceptance.

Johnson warns, “We’re putting them in such awkward situations where they don’t have the mental or physical capacity to handle what’s going to come at them. And as a result, they’ll either make poor choices or damaging choices physically and mentally that will hurt them forever.”

One parent of a Timpview cheerleader said she was shocked when her daughter told her team members couldn’t wear their uniforms on game day. The mother said it puts unfair pressure on the girls, correctly concluding, “This boy’s problem has nothing to do with them.”

Some men have made their position clear. Celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman made headlines in 2011 when he called women who say they dress in a sexually provocative way for themselves "liars." He urged them to take more responsibility. Freeman, whose clients have included David Beckham, said girls who wear racy underwear and skimpy tops make it clear they have sex on their mind.

In 2011, a Toronto police officer who told female university students during a campus safety information session they can avoid sexual assault by making sure they don’t dress like “sluts," was forced to apologize.

One of the cheerleaders at Timpview High School, upset they were advised not to wear their uniforms, pointed out, “It’s giving this boy power that when he grows up and does something to a girl, he can blame it on her skirt being too short. It really made me angry. Why should this boy have control over what we wear?”

A spokesperson for the Provo City School District says what happened at Timpview High School was all a misunderstanding. Caleb Price insists, “The school was never going to say you can’t wear your uniforms or dress in a certain way.”

For refusing to be victims of the hypersexualization of girls, three cheers for Timpview cheerleaders.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

How do these attitudes persist in 2016?

Disrupt Your Feed

Impure thoughts are just that, thoughts - as long as you don’t act on them, keep them to yourself, and don’t allow them to influence public policy, it’s all good.

Drop This Fact

The World Health Organization reports sexualized violence is a global problem with prevalence ranging from 15% of women in Japan reporting sexual violence in their lives, to 71% in Ethiopia.